248 WEEDS AXD USEFUL PLANTS. 



or twining round other plants, twisted, a little hairy. Leaves an inch to an inch and a 

 half long the smaller ones rather acute, the larger ones obtuse and somewhat emarginate 

 all of them with a minute cusp at the end of the midrib ; petioles half an inch to an inch 

 long. Peduncles axillary, 1-2% inches long, with 2 minute. bracts half an inch to a;i inch 

 below the flower. Corolla pale red or reddish-white. 

 Cultivated lots : introduced. Xative of Europe and Asia. Fl. June -July. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. This foreigner has been introduced into some portions of our 

 country, and may give the farmers some trouble, if they do not guard 

 against it. We are told that incessant vigilance is the condition on 

 which alone the rights of freemen can be maintained ; and I believe the 

 farmer will find a t similar condition annexed to the preservation of his 

 premises from the inroads of pernicious weeds. The following remarks, 

 from the Flora Londinensis, will afford some idea of the character of 

 this Convolvulus, as observed in England, and may serve as a salutary 

 caution here : 



" Beautiful as this plant appears to the eye, experience proves it to 

 have a most pernicious tendency in Agriculture. The field of the slov- 

 enly farmer bears evident testimony of this ; nor is the garden wholly 

 exempt from its inroads. The following experiment may serve to show 

 what precaution is necessary in the introduction of plants into a garden, 

 especially when we want them to grow in some particular situation. 



' ; Tempted by the lively appearance which I had often observed some 

 banks to assume from being covered with the blossoms of this Convol- 

 vulus, I planted twelve feet of a bank in my garden, which was about 

 four feet in height, with some roots of it : it was early in the spring, 



FIG. 160. Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis.) 



